Just in case anyone is interested, after traveling to the IOM on three occasions with only my clothing to carry on the bike as I was lucky enough to have accommodation booked I managed with a Kriega bag strapped to my seat as in this picture. Next year I have no accommodation so I need to take a tent, sleeping bag and mattress of some kind, not wanting to use a back pack I decided to make a rack of some kind, unfortunately on these bikes there aren't any easy fixing points for such a rack so a bit of head scratching was needed before I came up with an idea. I started looking around for materials and made my rack out of a broken chair and a wall plate strap from the building site i am working on at the moment. Two brackets fabricated to hold the rack. Then fitted to the bike. This is the rack and with the mounting plate fitted. Fitted to the bike. Now with the top box on. I know some of the mechanically minded will be thinking, what if you need to get under the seat for access to the relays or the tool role, well I thought of that, by undoing a home made thumb screw either side it tilts!! And with the seat up. The whole thing takes a couple of minutes to fit, just two bolts either side so it can be removed when I get to my destination if required and you see in the pictures I have left room to strap other items such as the tent and sleeping bag in front of the top box. All in all made out of scrap from a skip and a few hours labour and head scratching. Steve
That looks very practical indeed, nice one! Doubt it will win any awards on the motorcycle cat-walk, but, hey, it looks like it does the job.
I have Venturas fitted to my F4 and 1098 and decided to make my own to fit the 748. I also made a rack which took the top box I used when I had an S4 monster. The top box was fitted so that it was well forward and left space on the rack to strap a tent. It didn't tilt like yours but it was used on the 1098 so was not that important to get under the seat You have done a good job and well thought out
